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I’m super excited about the new shelves in my home! There were some minor hiccups along the way, (isn’t that how it usually is with DIY… you experiment, try new things?) even with the “ack” moments, I’m really happy with the way it all turned out. This is how it went down…or up?…

I tried to make my own stain using the steel wool method. Notice the word tried? I want to give this DIY stain another go. I believe my mistake was letting this mixture sit too long. Thus the strong rust color rather than the weathered gray I was going for.

These brackets are from Ikea. I bought them about 10 years ago. They were light pine, lovely as is, but I wanted a weathered look. The second bracket from the left was after one coat and the third bracket was after a second coat. Neither color was anywhere near the weathered gray I was going for.

I found the stain didn’t go on evenly even though I applied it evenly. Perhaps it was because I didn’t use a wood conditioner.

I had hoped with a third coat the color would even out somewhat (and hoping the color would gray out as they dried…), but that was not the case. As I mentioned above, the color came out a “rust” color instead of the weathered gray I was hoping to achieve. At this point I was not in a full-blown panic, but more like “ack”! I’d been waiting for the right time and place to use these and now I’ve ruined them! What do I do now?

So… I got out my trusty DeWALT palm sander and went at the brackets. I didn’t sand them down to bare wood as I still wanted the weathered look and decided a whitewashed technique could be just what these brackets needed. You can see the whitewashed technique here.

I wanted to mention how I hang stuff on my walls. TAPE. I use tape to “see” what the finished look will look like. You will see in future posts that the artwork is hung different from what is taped here (hence the beauty of using tape. See it before the nails go in.) I also changed the color of the walls in this room. The clock stayed in the same spot and so did the shelves. 🙂 I moved the cat house you see in the corner of the picture to the hall upstairs. I’ve noticed the cats scratch at it way more up there and it seems to be a great spot for them to go to when they need some quiet time. (see the cat post here) The lamp was moved to another room. You can see the lamp shade project here. Following At Koko’s Place you will see that things rarely stay in the same place for long!

The boards I used for the shelves used to be one of two huge bookcases. My awesome husband took them apart for me and the boards sat in the garage where they awaited what their new life would be. Picture them stained the darkest brown color you see here. I sanded them, leaving both the natural wood color and some of the brown stain, knowing I would whitewash the boards using the technique I did on the dresser turned desk here.

In making the bookcases, I countersunk screws… In making shelves, I didn’t want them to show. I then cut four boards down to 40 1/2 inches long using my DeWALT jig saw and then sanded the edges.

Patch away I did. There was a lot of patching to do! After patching, I sanded it all flat.

Dark gray walls now! The rack of plants I move around to follow the sun. And spoiled pets…the reason we bought sofas. 😉

Taped the walls again after the new color went on. Frog tape was used this time instead of Scotch Blue. The headlamp was because I decided to hang the shelves around midnight and I didn’t have adequate lighting in the room at the time. What? I know I’m not the only one that does projects at odd hours 😉

I used the level as I taped the lines. It made the job easier for me. I didn’t have studs where I needed them to be, so I used wall anchors. Best invention. See them in this project here.

Four down, four to go!

Even though I pre-leveled, I still would check the level as I went along. I also made sure the brackets were in a straight line.

All done! Now to add the boards.

*Insert happy squeal here!

Plants bought from Trader Joe’s, Home Depot, and Costco. Owl from TJMaxx. Buddha, can’t remember, I’ve had him for a long time.

I lived with the blue, then the green tapes for a bit. Over the course of a few weeks, I moved the tapes from three shelves to four and played with the spacing. I tried to picture what I would have on the shelves and how tall I envisioned the plants to grow. Since I love greenery, I knew I wanted more space to put them so that was why I added the fourth shelf. And I am happy I did!

Thank you so much for reading. As always, I appreciate YOU! Have a beautiful day!

Dyson heats, cools, air purifies your space! All three in one! How cool is that?!

Look what Santa brought me! Dreams do come true. Santa knew! I don’t know how, I never said it out loud, nor did I write it in a letter to the big guy. Though I have a feeling a special elf was involved!

I am super stoked to be talking about my new toy! I’ve walked by these units on display at stores for a couple of years. I must admit they had me at the “cool” setting during one very hot summer. The delightful coolness had me sighing and the near silent machine had me in awe! Then as winter would come they’d turn on the Dyson units that “heat”. The yummy warmth literally had me dreaming of one for myself. Something I didn’t know was Dyson made a unit that did both hot and cool and to make it even better they made it with an air purifier too! What!? Yes you heard me right.

Seven is helping me unbox. What a good kitty!

Since I took this out of the box, I’ve been using it daily. I know it’s too soon to review the longevity of it, but I will do a re-review on that later on during the year.

If you get a chance, take a look at the video about it HERE. Or watch below 🙂

I like its compact size and how quiet it is while on. I love the magnet feature on the remote. When done using it, you can set it on the top of the unit and it stays! No more losing the remote!

The first thing my daughter said was it reminds her of “R2D2”. Of course we had to give ours a name!

This is really easy to use. The controls are simple even for someone who isn’t techie savvy like me! I love that this is basically a 3 in 1; heat, cools, and air purifies. I love that this will replace three units in my home; space heater, fan, and air purifier and I’m looking forward to not having to carry the many units I do have up in the attic with each season when not needed.

The only con I can tell this far is the filter is not washable or reusable. But…from reading the manual, the filter should last a year if using this unit for 12 hours a day! That really is pretty awesome. I’m sure the filter will depend on individual homes: dust, dander, outdoor pollen, etc.

I didn’t go in to minute details on this, mainly because it really is simple to use. Plug in and go (well after I read the directions).

cools

heats

thermostat (this is fantastic, literally you can program this at even increments of one. my space heater starts at 65, 70, 75, 80. So far I’ve enjoyed the temp at 71!)

air purifies (the air quality is so nice. no burning smell you get with space heaters.)

airflow control (allows you to control how hard the air pushes out)

auto mode (this mode adjusts the airflow to the air quality in the room! smart!)

oscillates

two modes focused (air blows out directly) and diffused (air blows in a wider direction)

sleep timer (i love this feature)

night mode (the display on the machine is dimmed and it runs more quiet! how cool is that?!)

remote control (easy to use and the magnetic feature to secure it to the top of the unit is smart stuff!)

link this up to your phone! (what? yes, that’s what I said. I haven’t done this feature yet, but totally looking forward to it)

All in all I’m excited about this unit. Stay tuned for another re-review on this in about 6 months time.

Did I mention I had a few pets? Haha. They are enjoying the heating feature! Can you guess how many are dogs and how many are cats in this picture?

Please stay tuned to why I have green tape on my wall and what I do with it and all the other things I’ve been doing while it seemed like i’ve been MIA! 🙂

Thank you so much for all your likes, comments, and follows. They really do make my day, each and everyone!

At the moment, we are in a landlocked state. That means, no ocean touching our state on any side. Sadly, not even within driving distance. One day we will be near ocean again. It’s not a dream, it’s a reality! Until then, I wanted to store our boards in a way to still remind us that we surf, we love the ocean, we still are in the game!

There are many ways to store/showcase surfboards. Here’s what I did…

I got these cute dragonfly hooks. I used a stud finder to secure the screws into studs. The dragonfly hooks slips easily onto the screw. I bought these at Target.

I then used ribbon to hang the surfboard on and then slip the ribbon onto the hooks. Simple!

Here, I wanted this type of look. The wood adds a nice element and really ties the wood tones in this room. You can see the shelving unit I built here… You can see I kept the wood natural in the shelving. I knotted this rope because “Spencer The Cat” loves to play with the hanging piece! Picture of him can be found on my instagram! Though I do have a few felines, he’s one of the orange ones. Future post on all the abandoned critters that have found safe refuge with us coming… 🙂

I want to share with you how I plant many of my seeds. The video below says it all, or you can scroll down through the pictures…

I’m pretty sure you can guess what this “special” container is…

This lovely container is…yes, you guessed it, the end of a toilet paper roll. It makes for an amazing plant container. Let me show you what I do!

What I like about using this as a container for seeds is, it’s re-usable, compostable, and practically free!

Start by crimping one end of the tube. You want to create a “bottom”. Keep on crimping until the tube is closed…

Like this! Once you get your container bottoms all made, you will need to put them in something to hold them all upright. I’ve used a plastic salad container, egg cartons, shoe boxes…Use your imagination! Most anything that will keep them upright will do.

To fill the container, I use a make-shift funnel made out of thick paper. The T.P. rolls are in a paper (cardboard) “gomacrobar” box. If you haven’t tried a gomacrobar…do it! So delicious! Oh and see that adorable cup? It’s designed by Molly Hatch. Aren’t the polka dots just the cutest?

Fill em up!

Don’t forget to label. Again why I like using the cardboard containers, you can simply scribble right on the tubes!

If you are planting in ceramic or other types of containers, you can make labels like the ones you see here. I just wrote on paper and taped them to a toothpick.

These labels are made from plastic knives and I used a sharpie.

I couldn’t resist showing off one of my favorite bowls. My sister in-law made it! Isn’t it a beauty?

Like the cups says, “something good”…whether it’d be for yourself, (a nap, hot bath, a yummy drink) or for someone else, (catching up with an old friend, taking your mom out to lunch, donating towels and blankets to your local animal shelter)…whatever it is, make it something good!

Love and Peace, Koko

Tip: The theweeklyday asked a question and I wanted to share with you my answer. He was wondering how long they last indoors before the t.p. rolls fall apart. It really depends on the rolls and how you water them. They all are not created equal. However, if I have a “sad” roll (falling apart), I will take another roll and slice along the side and just “wrap” the “sad” roll. This method works really well to hold them together! Save the ends of paper towel rolls. Those are great for doing this with as you can cut them to size. But, you can do that with t.p. rolls too! Great question “theweeklyday”.

Remember the desk I repurposed? (see it here) The wall I’m referring to is the wall I see when I am creating at my desk. I had troubles doing anything with ugly holes staring back at me the whole time! I’m talking at least 20 unsightly holes! I took a shelving system down because something I am building will be in it’s place: Hopefully sooner than later, (waiting for my order to come in). Back to the ugly holes in the wall…I needed a quick fix.

Yes, a door! Voila! The ugly sight was fixed in seconds. (I will do a proper job with spackle later…) Since this is what I see…I wanted to pretty-it-up, by adding the antlers and it was simple enough to do…

The string was something I had on hand. It was too thin so I braided three strands for a thicker “rope”.

Seeing a wall full of this was not very inspirational.

I screwed in two of theses hooks. (See tip below for easy pilot hole start.)

Tip: You need a nail and a hammer…But keep in mind you want the nail you use to be thinner than the screw, otherwise the screw will not have something to bite into.

Tap the nail in (Not too far. Just a few taps will do.) See the hole near the right side of the nail?

Tapping in a pilot hole helps to guide the screw in. Just screw in the screw!

If you have an unsightly wall, you can fix it fast, by using an old door, new door, shoji screen, even a lovely quilt. This quick fix allows me to breathe easier seeing something pretty until I can get to repairing it.

Here’s to making the life around you beautiful. Peace, Koko❀

Mouse over the pics below to see the caption…Something I didn’t know! Found out accidentally! Teehee!

Whether you have a lot of space or a little space this shoe/multi purpose shelf will come in handy. This shelf is great to show off any collection whether it’d be tea pots or books or toys! Possibilities are endless.

I built the shelf over the closet and corner shelves for shoes as my daughter has a small collection 😉 I like that it displays her shoes in a pretty way as well as not take up any precious floor space!

When the shoes were stored in their boxes, my daughter found she didn’t wear them as much. This way she can see them and it makes choosing a pair very easy and fun!

Also don’t overlook over the door hooks to hang a jacket, purse, or next day clothes!

Check out more info on this awesome vegan leather jacket on Smashing Glitter. here…

Very convenient to have things out for easy access, but not taking up any “floor” space. And you avoid “the stacking over a chair” look!

This is how I did it…

I picked up these brackets at Target on sale for under five bucks for two! You can find brackets at any home improvement store. They come in many ornate shapes in metal as well as wood. All I did was decide how wide I wanted the shelf. In this case I got a 1″ x 10″ which in reality is really 1″ x 9 1/4″. (That has always bothered me. A 1″ x 10″ should measure exactly that!) After you decide how wide you want it, the next thing is to decide how long. I wanted it to go from the corner to a little beyond the closet door. You can have the home improvement store cut it for you or you can cut it yourself. I already had the wood in my go-to-stack-of-lumber, so I just cut it myself using a compound miter saw.

I lightly sanded the board and stained it with stain I had left over from a project. You do not need to sand or stain the board. You can leave it as is. You can also paint it any color you want or you can just varnish it with a clear water based varnish.

Okay…moving on to the corner shelves.

Corner shelves can be bought at Target or home improvement stores. You can also make them. I normally would make them, however these were on sale and to make them would have cost me more. So in this instance it was a no brainer to not have to put the work into it.

Here you can see there are cleats that hold up the shelf. Find the studs in the wall. If you do not have studs use wall anchors. You can learn about them on my other tutorial here. Once the cleats are attached to the wall, you place the shelf on top. You can then screw it down from the top or hot glue the shelf on like I did. How you attached the shelf really depends on what you are putting on it.

Don’t you love it?!

From below…………then above. 🙂

Creating more space without really “taking” up space is a win-win! Shelves like these will help you be more organized and being more organized helps you find things! Make more room without “taking” up space! You too can do this!

Please like, follow, and share. Your support means the world to me! Also if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter you will get sneak previews of upcoming posts and snippets into my life!

If you have any questions drop me a comment. I’m always happy to help.

Organizing is always on the forefront of my mind. For me it just makes sense. I can find things and easily store things and that makes my life run smoothly.

Is your cupboard full of coffee mugs; stacked one on top of the other? Mine was a mess. And I worried that they’d chip being cramped in such a small space. Also I couldn’t showcase how cute my cups were. This is what I did to free up valuable cabinet space as well as something pretty to look at and make me smile…

I took some paper (taped pieces together to make it large enough) and made a template. I then measured out how far apart I wanted the cups (see orange dots). Keeping in mind to give room so the cups don’t hit the back of the wall.

After the template was made I taped it to the bottom side of the cabinet. I then took a 16d otherwise known as 16 penny nail (any nail or sharp pointed object will do)(though I like using nails better as it makes a great starter guide hole) … Using a hammer I tapped once or twice straight through the paper at each dot/mark. Your goal is to make a “guide” hole to make it easier to screw the hook into.

And then comes the easy part…I removed the template and screwed each hook into the holes I had made using the 16 penny nail. (For those of you who don’t know what a 16 penny nail is–it’s just a very large nail.)

The “d” in 16d refers to “penny”. Way back in the Roman times the “d” stood for denarius which was what they called their coin (money) then. The nails were hand forged during that time period (obviously…hehehe) and was said that a hundred 3 1/2″ nails cost 16 pennies. Hence the name we now use as 16 penny nails or also can be referred to as 16d. The cost of one hundred 14d nails (during that time) was 14 pennies and so on and so on… 🙂

Nails come in many lengths from 4d on up to 60d. There are different shaft shapes too!

This was a very easy project anyone can do. Yes YOU! I believe in YOU! The cost was my time (FREE–though I wish I were paid…hehehehe) and the hooks which run a few dollars. Tip: You can use newspaper or paper bags to make a template with. Any questions you might have, ask away!

Save some cabinet space and give this project a go! If you do, please post it or email me a picture. I’d love to see your collection of mugs!

I made this out of a pair of slacks. Crazy, I know! Tossing out good things just doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t keep stuff around long. I have a plan for all the “stuff” so I keep my house from looking like I’m collecting stuff for the next zombie apocalypse. I knew the stack of slacks would come in handy, I just had to let the ideas flow and make a plan and put it into action! This is what I came up with…✿

I have about ten of these!

I cut off the legs…

I then seem ripped it down one side.

You can sew leg pieces together to get a really large piece. (Stay tuned to see what I made with leg pieces I sewed together!) You can play around with the angles of the original stitching too. (As in, no need to have everything in a straight line. You can have fun with angling the stitching to go at a diagonal for interest!

This leg was just the right size for the pillow I am using! Woohoo! 🙂

Also it could be neat to sew the fabric at all angles kind of like a patchwork quilt!

For this pillow I added ruffles using scraps from a sheet I had that was a curtain in it’s past life! 🙂 I made an opening in the center for ease of washing the case.

Ta-da! A pillow out of a pair of pants! This pillow took one pair. I did mention I had a stack of 10…Yay the possibilities! (Notice tiny paw on left? Belongs to cute kitty!)

To ruffle or not to ruffle was the question…Couldn’t decide. I did both!

There you have it…Pillows repurposed from slacks! I hope you can find ways to reuse, recycle, rethink the things you have laying around your home. Until next time…Have a glorious day! ✿Koko✿ Please like, follow, and share! I do appreciate your support ❤

I have this lamp shade that has cracks and dents in it. (Actually I have a few shades with cracks and dents in it.) A casualty of the kitties turning every surface and object into their obstacle course. This lamp has been knocked over more times than I can count. I’m surprised the lamp even works! The shade, well it has seen better days.

This is actually its good side.

Today this post is about taking a broken, cracked, dented lamp shade and making it brand new again. Here’s what I did… (Items used: 1 dinged up lamp shade, fabric, scissors, glue gun, glue sticks, measuring tape, lint roller, and a magic wand or a pencil, whichever you have on hand!)

Lint roller is for all the kitty hair attached to said shade. Evidence it was them!!!!

I cut out circles out of fabric I had on hand. (It was a curtain “made from a twin sheet” I fabric painted grey circles on for my daughters bedroom). We’ve moved from that house but I kept the curtains. I cut circles…many, many circles. I sorted out the circles that had any grey in them and set them aside for another project. Really, once you have your circles cut out, you are good to go.

Lots and lots of circles…

Find the center using a pencil or magic wand…

Work the fabric around the pencil…

I chose to start at the top of the lamp shade. I measured out about an inch between each little “flower” (that’s what I will call them from here on out✿.

And the fun begins! Start hot glueing. (Please pardon the dire need for a manicure. I work way too much with my hands!)

Yay, first flower! One down.

Then I glued a line of flowers in a straight line to the bottom of the shade. Again measuring about an inch apart. This way it gave me a guide to eyeball the rest of the flowers without having to measure. I still kept in mind roughly an inch all around each flower.

Keep on gluing…

Keep on gluing…

Keep on…well you get the picture.

Almost done.

After you are done, adjust the “petals” (fluff them up) and look for any bare spots.

I found one here… Bare spot! Oh no! Teehee, never fear. Easy fix…

Glue more as needed… All done!

Yippee! ❀

And there you have it. A lampshade that was destined for the trash. Now recycled, remade, renewed. All it really cost me was my time.

It really lights up my life and the corner of the room too! 😉

You can do this technique with many types of fabric as well as tissue paper! You can cut the shapes into circles or even squares. Technique stays the same. I hope you’ve enjoyed the post. Please “Like, follow and share”. I really do appreciate you popping in!